Team Canada Juniors had a wonderful day at the track events on Day 3 at the Pan-American Championships in Guatemala.

The team started the day with an update from late on Tuesday, the officials made a mistake in the Women's Individual Pursuit (timing and scoring). After several heated discussions, the commissaries looked at the facts and awarded the Silver medal to Columbia and Canada was place in the Bronze position Ariane Bonhomme (Ottawa). This elevated Sarah Mason (London) to 4th in the official overall finishing order.

In today's race acton Ariane and Sarah were partnered with Kinley Gibson (Edmonton) to produce a 1st place Qualifying result in the Women's Team Pursuit over 3km. The newly formed team stopped the clock in 3:52 and were on top of the results page and went into the Gold medal round against the very tough Mexican Team.

The plan was to ride on a schedule that was faster than our qualifying time and put pressure on the team from Mexico. Early in the race for GOLD, the Mexican team put their top pursuiter on the front for 4 laps and established a 3 second lead on our team. This advantage continued until the end of the race with our women's team working hard and finishing 2 seconds faster than their qualifying time. Kinley Gibson said after the race (just before the Silver medal was presented), "The team dynamic throughout our racing has been very strong. Everyone is very supportive, and we have all been working toward this podium finish." "The team was at 110% for the entire race, we are in this for the long term, and we are taking it one day at a time". Kinley is preparing for the Women's Omnium that begins on Thursday morning.

Canada was very close to a medal in the Women's Points race were Bailin Xie (Ottawa) and Ariane Bonhomme (Ottawa), were consistently on the front attacking and mixing up the race. In the end, the rider from the Columbian team lapped the field and took home the Gold. Bonhomme finished a solid 4th with Xie scoring 2 points and finishing 7th.

The men in their Points Race were not as fortunate, even though Marc-Antoine Noel and Will Simonds both gave it their all. At the half way sprint for points, 5 riders came together and Simonds was in the middle of a big crash that took out the top ranked Columbian riders. Simonds badly scrapped up got back on his bike and soldiered on in an attempt to finish the race. 20 laps later the pain was too much for the young rider from London and Simonds had to withdraw after a gritty performance.

The last session of the day featured the Women's Sprint. 3 Canadians were entered. Audrey Labrie (Montreal) qualified 5th, Bailin Xie and Kirsten Sears failed to qualify for the sprint rounds. Labrie was up against a very cagey Guatemalan who had the home town cheering her on. Labrie lost both races in round 1 of the tournament and finished in 8th position overall at the end of the day.

The Canadians are back in the hunt for medals on Thursday, Men's and Women's Omnium (Adian Caves & Kinley Gibson), Men's Keirin (Eric MacDonald & Joakim Albert), Women's Keirin (Sarah Mason & Audrey Labrie)... Good luck to all the Canadians.

Courtesy Rob Good, Team Canada

Results from today's 3rd day at the Junior Pan-American Championships in Guatemala